Saturday, September 26, 2009

Do Americans Love thgeir Children?

Do Americans love their children? Of course they do. Nothing is more certain than that.But let's look at some facts: 13 million children in the US are either hungry or in danger of going hungry.Almost half of all US kids, aged 6 to 13, are home alone for part of the day? In order to earn more, both father and mother go to work in many families. Children spend the afternoon after school at home--alone.At the moment the national debt of the US stands at almost 12 TRILLION. That means that every man, woman and child in the US owes close to $ 39,000.00. Every child born today comes into the world owing $ 39,000.00. That number is going up, by the day. (Every day the US debt increases by almost $ 4 BILLION).So our children and grandchildren will have to get a good education and work hard to earn that money. But school boards around the nation report shrinking budgets. That means only one thing: fewer teachers, larger classes, less help for everybody who needs it. In short, public education is suffering. The US had 1 ½ million adults incarcerated. About half of these adults have one or more minor children. At least a million children grow up with a parent in prison. Is that any way to grow up? Well, you say, the parents should not have committed crimes. But is that the children's fault? Does anyone care about those children?A final fact: Almost 30 percent of the nation's children are insured through Medicaid or through the state. As state revenues plummeted this year, many states were forced to cut Medicaid programs or cut back eligibility, which disrupted care for children. California, for example, nearly cut 450,000 children from Medicaid programs until lawmakers saved the program at the last minute.Being a child in the US is frequently very hard. Do Americans love their children as much as they think?